Jefferson Finis Davis was born on June 3, 1808. He was the tenth and last child of Samuel and Jane Cook Davis of Christian County (now Todd County), Kentucky. The family moved to Wilkinson County, Mississippi Territory, in 1812. Davis entered the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, in 1824, and he graduated in 1828. From West Point, Davis went on to serve as a second lieutenant in the United States Army at Fort Crawford, Wisconsin; Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin; and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, during which time he participated in the Black Hawk War.

Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor, in June of 1835, and later that month, Davis resigned from the army. The couple traveled to Hurricane, the Warren County, Mississippi, plantation of Joseph Davis, the elder brother of Jefferson Davis, who gave the couple Brierfield, an eight-hundred-acre plantation adjacent to Hurricane. Shortly after their arrival in Mississippi, both Davis and his wife contracted malaria, and on September 15, 1835, she succumbed to the disease. Davis recovered and became a cotton planter in Warren County.

In February of 1845, Jefferson Davis married Varina Howell at The Briars in Natchez, Mississippi. The couple had six children: Samuel Emory (1852-1854), Margaret Howell (1855-1909), Jefferson, Jr. (1857-1878), Joseph Evan (1859-1864), William Howell (d. 1872), and Varina Anne (1864-1898).

Davis was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1845, a position from which he resigned after less than a year, to command the Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican War. He was wounded at Buena Vista, Mexico, in February of 1847. Later that year, Davis was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the United States Senate. In 1851, Davis resigned from the senate to run as governor of Mississippi, but he was defeated by Senator Henry Stuart Foote. The following year, he campaigned for presidential candidate Franklin Pierce, and Davis was eventually appointed secretary of war under President Pierce. In 1857, Mississippi reelected Davis to the United States Senate. Four years later, in a farewell speech to the senate, Davis announced the secession of Mississippi and resigned his seat. In February of 1861, Davis was elected provisional president of the newly formed Confederate States of America, and in October of that year, he was elected president of the Confederacy.

When Lee's surrender at Appomattox ended the Confederacy in April of 1865, Davis fled with his family and advisors. He was captured one month later at Irwinville, Georgia, and imprisoned at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Davis was released from prison on bail in 1867, and in 1869, the United States government dropped all charges against him. In that same year, Davis became president of the Carolina Insurance Company in Memphis, Tennessee. The company failed four years later, forcing Davis to attempt to regain legal control of his plantation, Brierfield. Davis eventually succeeded, but was unable to make very much money from the plantation. In 1877, Davis moved to a small cottage at Beauvoir, the estate of Sarah Anne Dorsey, an admirer of Davis. Dorsey eventually sold Beauvoir to Davis and later willed her entire estate to him. While he lived at Beauvoir, Davis completed two books, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government in 1881 and A Short History of the Confederate States in 1889. Davis contracted bronchitis on a trip to Brierfield in 1889. He returned to New Orleans where he died on December 9, 1889. Davis was buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, but his remains were reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, four years later.

This collection contains photocopies of letters written by Jefferson Davis, Varina Howell Davis, Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson, Robert E. Lee, P. G. T. Beauregard, and J. S. Cox.

1. Correspondence (Davis Family). 1878; 1882; 1887; 1890; 1899. 1 folder.

   This series includes photocopies of letters written by Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell Davis. In a January 1, 1878, letter to Colonel A. D. Mann, Jefferson Davis discussed his attempts to recover property that was sold while he was imprisoned after the Civil War. He also described his life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, comparing it to Mann’s life in France. Davis recommended Alexander Scarborough for a position at a local cotton press in an 1882 letter to S. Heyward. He thanked Arthur H. Taylor for an honorary membership in the Franklin Society at Randolph Macon College in a January 28, 1887, letter. Varina Howell Davis recommended Laura Fowler for a position as vocal instructor at the Industrial Institute and College (now Mississippi College for Women), Columbus, Mississippi, in a March 22, 1890, letter. She also thanked Belle Morgan for an invitation in a January 14, 1899, letter.

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2. Correspondence (Military). 1846; 1861; 1864; 1883; n.d. 1 folder.

   This series includes photocopies of letters written by Confederate generals Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and P. G. T. Beauregard, as well as Confederate prisoner-of-war J. S. Cox. There is a November 29, 1846, letter from Jackson in Monterey, Mexico, to quartermaster Captain G. H. Crosman in Camargo, Mexico, regarding military equipment. In a July 25, 1861, letter from Jackson in Manassas, Virginia, to banker J. H. Myers, he encloses a check for one hundred dollars and requests that a draft be sent to Manassas. There is also a December 27, 1861, letter from Jackson to Charles J. Faulkner requesting a meeting date as soon as possible. In a September 20, 1864, letter from Lee to Confederate secretary of war James A. Sedden in Richmond, Virginia, he reports on battle losses at Winchester, Virginia. There is a February 19, 1883, letter from Beauregard in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Mrs. E. G. Hemingway in Jackson, Mississippi, enclosing an 1865 photograph. An undated letter from Confederate prisoner-of-war J. S. Cox, Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, to his father, describes his medical condition and relays news of fellow prisoners.

   Box 1